Mass Effect 3: The Brotherhood
by Telepek
Summary: My version of the Reaper War. Join Commander Mark Shepard in his fight against the reapers and also new threats to the galaxy. With his friends by his back and a new group of allies he will do everything to achieve victory. MShep Spacer/Sole Survivor. OC. Slight romances. Rated M for mature language.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**After many, many years of only reading the FF's i finally said enough. Time to sit and start writing my own point of view on some aspects of certain universes, sharing my own ideas for some stories. I'm starting with my Mass Effect 3 but before the actual story i have to say something for the beginning.**

**The most important thing is that i do not speak English perfectly, so there is a possibility of me having a mistake here and there. Besides the obvious reason, that is wanting to write my own story i am treating this as a challenge to improve my knowledge about the language. Of course any comments about mistake that i've made are appreciated and if i'll be sucking much, i'll find a beta :).  
**

**Ok, now something about the story itself.**

**In some parts it'll be a novelization of Mass Effect 3. Some things or events will be written thoroughly like in the game, some things will be changed and I'll also add something from myself. I won't be writing exactly each sentence from the game here, I'll try to describe each scene with my own words. Also i won't be using the "Crucible-Kid-Mumbo-Jumbo" concept, i have something planned for the big Reaper finale, but that... later.**

**I'm creating a OC as another member of Shepard Crew. Most of the story will be narrated from the 1st person perspective [the OC of course], but the guy will be different. By different i mean not another Soldier with a gun. The character itself, his background will be a fusion of inspirations from another universes [Movies, games and comics], with a possibility od a direct reference to some of them.**

**I am also not that deep into the lore of Mass Effect, so some things l will be really... simplified. I may even write some bull**** about something, there is a possibility of that, and if i do so, a correct notice would be appreciated :).  
**

**Ok, for now it is all. Some further explanation will be given at the end of each chapter.**

**And of course I do not own the rights to the Mass Effect game, either the characters, places, etc.**

**Enjoy! ;-)**

**- Chapter 1 -**

They are here.

They are fucking here.

It really seemed unreal, like some kind of weird nightmare.

Maybe i have to pinch myself. I'll do that right now.

Ouch.

I opened my eyes, and unfortunately i was still in the cargo bay, instead in hideout in one of the apartments in my comfy bed in Nassau Towers, still sitting at some random crate and mindlessly playing with the bowstring.

"How the hell did i ended here again?" i asked myself again for the fourth time. "Oh, yes. Shepard's trial, reaper landing and two Alliance soldiers that had a way out of the planet."

I should explain.

I arrived to Vancouver with my team exactly the same day, as Commander Mark Shepard was transferred to Alliance headquarters to wait for his trial that was scheduled to begin two weeks later. With his presence here, and the upcoming trial the City was probably the most popular place in the galaxy. Everyone wanted to be here, unfortunately including the members of another species. That was our main concern, because in the fact of Shepard's genocide accusations, there was a very big chance of trouble. And we were right, because the Alliance had a "Open Relay" policy that allowed everyone to travel through the Charon Relay, but most of the aliens that arrived, were only looking to humiliate and show humans "how superior they are." and they were doing that by picking fights with the civilians, robbing and destroying stores and vandalizing the streets. That was angering the local population and day by day, they wanted to retaliate. Needles to say the Police forces with our quiet assistance, were having a very hard time keeping the City calm and not let the riots to begun. That was a very hard task, because the Aliens kept coming and coming. Luckily the NCAU and FOSAC helped by sending their military forces to help maintain peace.

And then came the 29th July. The day of the trial and also the day that we expected an open confrontation between Vancouver citizens and our alien "visitors". I met with my men in one of our locations in the City to discuss strategy for today. My speech was interrupted by loud, mechanic roar. I looked up and i saw a big tentacle monster descending from the sky.

A Reaper. An actual, motherfucking reaper. It landed right directly behind the Alliance headquarters and started shooting a big reddish laser from... who knows where, all i know was that the laser was destroying everything that it touched.

I looked around my men an without a word we came to an agreement. My second in command - Ibis, was about to take charge, when i needed to take a ride to the Citadel to our main hideout and discuss strategy with other team leaders. To do that i had to make my way to the Alliance spaceport.

The City was in total and utter chaos. People were panicking, running everywhere and desperately trying to find some cover from the bigger robots. But they didn't knew about the much smaller, ground units.

On my way to the spaceport i found some Alliance marines trapped behind a couple of sky cars, ambushed by the... things that used to be batarian. But not anymore. They were more... deformed, their skin was much darker, their eyes had a very light blue color and somehow for the love of God, every one of them had an assault rifle mounted in one of their arms. It was far beyond my understanding why did they looked that, but all that mattered was the fact that the marines needed saving.

My fight with the ambushers did not lasted long. Using the cloak and about half a dozen of arrows all of them were dead but unfortunately not all the marines survived, only two made out alive - a woman Ashley Williams and a man James Vega who was wounded in the leg badly enough to had difficulty walking. The woman thanked me and said that she had a transport out of the planet and she'd be happy to help me if i escort her to the ship. I desperately needed transport to the Citadel so i said yes.

Lucky for us the port was not far enough. We managed to get in there in roughly 30 minutes, the fight was hectic, but besides Vega's still wounded leg that really bothered him we didn't had any major injuries. When we got to the ship my jaw dropped to the floor.

It was the Normandy in all her beauty. Repainted in the Alliance's colors, docked in one of the stations. I never was a big mechanics and ships fan, but i actually stood there speechless for a minute and admired how she looked. I even had the impression that the ship impatiently waited to be released from the docking clamps, almost begging to let it fly. And like it wasn't enough surprises for the day Williams told me that we needed to pick Commander Shepard on the way.

Inside the Cargo Bay i saw Vega laying in the middle of the floor, looking very grey and not moving, and Williams by one of the consoles speaking to the pilot. I dragged Vega to the nearby crate and finally got a better look at his wound. What Williams told me, one of the destroyed sky cars fell on him, luckily enough not to crush him, but trapping his leg. The marines lift the remains, but one on the sharp pieces made a very deep cut into his calf and caused a big bleeding. The injury only looked very serious, one dose of medigel effectively closed the wound, but after that he was forbidden to walk at least next six hours to prevent the reopening of the wound and eventually needed blood transfusion. He ignored my comments about his state and immediately stood up saying "fuck it, i have to fight." but after that he collapsed on the floor yelling in pain and muttering curses in what looked like a Spanish language. Without a comment i leaned him against one of the supply crate and sat beside him.

So yes i was currently sitting in the Normandy's Cargo Bay running from the reaper invasion and was on my way to pick up Commander Shepard. Pretty nice way to start the day, huh?

"Admiral Anderson... Anderson do you copy!" Williams almost started yelling with her finger on the earpiece.

"Relax Williams." i said. "We have their location, we are... how much we are from their distress beacon?" i asked out loud hoping that the pilot would hear me.

"45 seconds." said a calm feminine voice.

"See?" I grinned "Less than a minute and i am pretty sure that those two are good soldiers, and can handle themselves."

By the look of her face, she really wanted to say something but the pilot's voice from the speaker interrupted her.

"Cavalry's here gentlemen." and after two seconds i heard a slight explosion under my feet which sounded like a mini-bomb dropped on the ground.

"Come on." said Williams grabbing her Avenger and running to the cargo bay door. I momentarily followed her putting the hood on my head, and taking one arrow from the quiver.

It wasn't long until the door started to slowly opening, revealing the destruction that Reapers caused. I mean seriously, how much have passed since they landed? Hour, Hour and a half? The place looked like after a nuclear explosion. The remains of buildings were everywhere and not to mention the dead bodies that no doubt were hidden in them, destroyed Alliance helicopters and shuttles, the sounds of Reaper abominations echoing everywhere mixed with cries of people who could not find their loved ones, cries of agony...

How the fuck we were already beaten? How the fuck we got surprised by that? Where the fuck were our defenses, our orbital cannons scattered around the world, the early warning system?

I knew the answer before i started asking those questions to myself.

Alliance. The fucking council. They were to blame. They were the damn idiots who ignored Shepard's warnings. They were the ones who laughed him publicly during many, many interviews. Udina said that he was delusional! That Cerberus washed his mind! I mean for fuck sake if there is at least 0,000000001% chance of a threat to everyone in the damn galaxy, you have to take action! Make some decisions, create at least a weak defense! Help and safely secure civilians! But all they did, was some pointless accusations and then they buried their head in the sand completely ignoring the problem. And now there is no sand to bury their heads into. It was time to make decisions and i somehow felt that it'll be even worse than before.

The door finally opened and on what looked like a remain of a parking spots i spotted Anderson and fighting beside him was Commander Mark Shepard himself. They looked fine except a couple of visible bruises here and there. Even with the Normandy's bomb, the remains of the reapers forces were still closing on their positions, but it seemed that the two of them had things under control. They were good at coveting each other, when one of them had to reload the second used grenades and concussive shots to cover another. They were incredibly effective, me and Williams did not fired a single shot to help them.

Until they ran out of ammo. Both of them at the same time.

The situation was bad enough, because three of the batarian abominations were closing on Shepard position. Seeing that i switched my normal arrow to a special, blue one and fired at the enemy. The arrow hit one on the shoulder but by the time it happened i already had a special detonator in my hand and pressed one of the buttons.

The arrow started emitting very high dose of electricity. High enough to disable a military shield and paralyze an organic being, and since those batarian abominations were close the electricity transported from one to another effectively paralyzing all of them. After seven seconds they collapsed on the ground. I did not knew if they were dead, but clearly there were not a threat to the two humans. From a distance i saw Shepard very stunned and i kind of didn't blame him. Not every day you see an electric arrow in the twenty second century inside of a mutated batarian, but the man needed to move if he wanted to live.

"Shepard!" i yelled hoping that would gain his attention.

It worked. I saw him looking at my direction and next yelling something to Anderson. The two friends took all of their grenades and threw them at the enemies position. And right before they blew up they stood up and started running.

The grenades eliminated at least half of the reaper and forces and in some way reduced their visibility but they were still some hidden on that damn parking lot. And since Shepard and Anderson started running to the Normandy, they started shooting in my and Williams direction. Their fire was effective enough to disable the runners shields and force them hide behind some piece of concrete what was at least five hundred meters ahead of our position. I took Vega's pistol and tried with Williams to lay some suppressing fire, but the mutated batarians were too far to even care. I knew that we needed to eliminate them to have a clear shot of safely evacuating Shepard and Anderson alive. By the corner of my eve i started looking around. On the parking were several skycars, one of them was damaged enough to be slightly smoking. Blowing them up could kill one or two of them but there were at least ten more. The parking was surrounded by some buildings and i could see that the one on the right was barely keeping together. I noticed that the only thing that was keeping the building from falling was the Alliance shuttle that crashed into it weirdly enough to be a pillar for the exterior wall.

I threw the pistol away, got my bow and took another one of the special, this time red arrows from the quiver and shot it at the shuttle. To be certain I shot another one, and just for the heck of it i shot the third one. And then i pressed another button on the detonator. From the distance it wasn't really visible but i knew that after i pressed the button the fletching on each of the arrows ignited itself acting as a fuse for the piece of explosive material that was placed between the head and the middle of the shaft. One arrow could easily make a hole in the armor and as it turned out three were effective enough to blow already damaged shuttle that fell in the water, leaving the wall free and falling right on the reaper forces heads. Just like i planned.

Shepard and Anderson had seen that and looked at me with gratitude and jogged in our direction. The commander was ahead of Anderson and he was the first to jump on the ship's doors.

"Welcome home Shepard" said Williams slightly smiling.

He didn't answer, instead he turned around expecting his companion to join him.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?"

"I'm not going Shepard." said Anderson with a calm tone.

"Why?" asked Shepard slightly surprised.

"There are hundreds of people here, needing help and they need a leader." answered Anderson in the same voice. By that sentence he immediately earned my respect. Not everyone would stay and protect people from the invasion with an offer of safety on the Citadel.

"We're in this fight together!"

"It's a fight we can't win. Not without help." said Anderson observing one of the reapers on my left side that was tearing his way through the city. "You need to go to the Citadel. Talk to the council!"

I wanted to throw in a sarcastic joke about the each member of the council and a pig's ass but i managed to hold it and still carefully watched Anderson's back.

"We both know that they'll not want to hear what i have to say!" yelled Shepard in a desperate tone.

"You'll make them listen! That is an order!"

"I don't take anymore orders from you, remember?"

I watched as Anderson reached to one of his pockets and pulled something very shiny and threw in Shepard's direction. Dog Tags.

"Consider yourself reinstated. Commander" said Anderson turning his attention on one of the Alliance shuttles landing behind him.

Commander did not answer. Instead he stared at the dog tags. By the look of his face i could see how torn he was. He wanted to stay here and defend the planet, protecting his friend but on the other side he knew that will wait for him. I could also see the weight that was in a blink of an eye dropped on his shoulders. But then there was that tiny moment where i saw confidence. Hope. It did not lasted long but i already knew that humanity had the right leader in this war. But then he stopped and looked at his friend.

"I'll be back for you. I promise."

"I know Shepard. Fly safe."

Shepard already turned his back and made his way inside the ship. There was one thing that I needed to do.

"Admiral!" i yelled, putting a rectangular thing from one of the compartments of my belt. My transmitter, that we use to communicate between each other in the team. All of my men were here and i really believed that they could challenge reaper forces, that they could fight them for days or even longer. But i knew that at a certain moment they'd need help. So does Anderson.

"You'll need this." i said throwing the transmitter to him. He looked surprised, but he catched it and was studying it. "My men can help you."

"Your men?" asked Shepard surprised.

"There is no time to explain everything Admiral. Contact them. Tell them that Vulture left the transmitter in a your hands and orders to give you any help that you'll need."

"And just that they'll trust me?"

"The transmitter is a proof enough that you are trustworthy but if that wouldn't be enough tell them these words: twenty four, Diamond, Azure and they need to be in that order."

I could clearly see that Anderson still had his doubts.

"Admiral, you can throw this transmitter away and forget about me and my men. But we can really help, we took an oath to protect the innocent from danger exactly like this one." i said pointing my finger at the reaper. After a brief the Admiral finally spoke

"Thank you. I'll use everything to fight them."

I nodded and turned to Shepard

"We can go now."

All three of us went inside of the ship and turned around to have the last glimpse of our planet. I didn't knew what Shepard and Williams were thinking at this particular moment, but i knew that i found a place during this war. It was right here, on this ship. By Shepard's side i could really do some good. I only needed to prove it.

**For now that is it. I have about ten more pages written but i need to read them carefully thousand times to catch the possible mistakes. A feedback is very welcome :)**

**Next time - Mars.**

**Until next time! :).**


	2. Chapter 2: Mars (1)

**- Chapter 2 -**

**Mars**

**Well folks, another chapter. It has about 16 pages so i decided to split it up into three parts, i don't know about everyone else but in the books i hate long chapters that are stretched for God how many pages, i prefer shorter chapters so i used it here. **

**I also got a couple of personal messages from people. Thank you for pointing out my grammar mistakes, i am really grateful. I also got a question about my OC and with who he'll end at the end. And to be honest i don't know. I don't have planned the story this far ahead, i am figuring out how to write the Menae mission with all the changes that I've made. But i am thinking about it. **

**Ok, I'll stop ranting for now. Enjoy :-).**

Since our departure from Earth, passed more that fifteen minutes and nobody said a word. I was kneeling by still unconscious Vega, checking his vitals. Williams was kneeling beside me, checking on his friend as well and Shepard was standing with his hands on a weapon cleaning station, mindlessly staring at the wall, deep in thoughts.

Couple of moments later Vega finally opened his eyes. He looked at me and Ashley kneeling beside him, and in a blink of an eye he remembered the events of the day, because he wanted to quickly stand up. Preventing another passing out, i pinned him to the crate.

"Easy, amigo." i pressed my hand, hard against his chest. "Don't play Mr. Tough-One cause you'll pass out again."

He remembered the last time that he tried to do that, because he immediately calmed down and started looking around, and after a moment his gaze found Shepard.

"Commander!" he yelled.

But Shepard still was in his own world, still looking at that damn wall. Vega tried to call him several times, but it didn't work. He looked at us with a questioning gaze, hoping for an answer.

"Don't look at me." i said taking off the hood, and getting a better look of my surroundings. The Cargo Bay looked bad, very messy. You could see that the Normandy took off in a rush. Crates were basically everywhere, some of them half opened with random stuff: from Alliance uniforms to ration packs and even military armor and weapons. Besides that, there was an armory, two weapon stations and two communication consoles. In other words: nothing special.

By the corner of an eye i could see that Williams and Vega were observing me. It didn't bothered me much, because most of the time they saw me with the hood on my head so it was obvious that they were curious. _"Never let the enemy see your face."_ one of the rules said. But i was surrounded by friends. At least i hoped that.

Williams finally moved in Shepard's direction. She didn't said a word to him, instead she put her hand on his arm, shaking it gently. That worked. He snap out from whatever dream world he was and started looking around. He spotted Vega still sitting on the floor and went to check up on him.

"You ok, Vega?" he asked, kneeling beside him.

"Yes... yes sir!" he answered again trying to stand up and salute to his superior officer. As soon he put some pressure on the wounded leg, he barely contained the scream of pain and started falling on the floor, but Shepard caught him midair and placed him back on the ground. Then he looked at me, clearly wanting answers so i gave him the full story.

"It's not bad, he just can't use this leg for a couple of hours, let the medigel do its work." i reassured him at the end.

He nodded in acknowledgment, and reassuringly patted the soldier in the arm. And then a pilot voice came from the intercom.

_"Commander, urgent message from Admiral Hackett."_

"Joker, is that you?" asked Shepard surprised and happy.

_"Alive and kicking. But you better answer the message, sounds urgent."_ answered the pilot.

I stood near Williams as i watched how Shepard was making his way to the console and establishing the connection. From our place we could only listening. The connection was really bad, we heard about every second word, but it wasn't a surprise considering the giant tentacle monsters flying trough space.

_"Commander! Are... alright?"_ an old raspy voice came from the other side of the call.

"Yes sir." answered Shepard with a salute. "I managed to escape, along with a small group of soldiers."

So, i was a soldier, huh? That was promising.

"Anderson told us to go to the Citadel, and talk to the Council." he added.

_"First i need you to... Prothean archive... Mars."_ said Hackett. _"We might... a way... to stop... reapers."_

"How? A what way?" said Williams surprised like all of us.

_"Dr T'Soni managed... blueprints. A weapon..."_

"A weapon?"

_"Yes, Commander. But we lost contact... the facility. We suspect... something bad... happened."_

_"Something bad? There is a damn reaper invasion, of course something bad happened!"_ i thought sarcastically, but kept listening.

_"I need... team... go there, and investigate. Escort dr T'Soni from the base... safely."_

"Yes sir." said Shepard saluting again, and ending the call. Then he made his way in our direction. I saw that the expression on his face had already changed. From nervous, lost in thought, he became determined and focused on achieving his goal.

"Williams, grab your gear, you are coming with me." he said simply, and then he started walking in my direction. He stooped right in front of me, and looked me in the eyes. I didn't knew what to expect, so i took the glove and returned the gaze desperately trying not to blink.

"You saved my friend's life." he said suddenly, extending his hand. To be honest i expected everything from a thorough questioning to one way ticket for a journey through the airlock, but not that. But sensing positive vibes from him, i shook the hand.

"Doing my job, Commander." i said simply.

"More importantly, you saved my life, which i am grateful for."

"Oh, come on. Please i am starting to blush." i said jokingly trying to clear the very serious atmosphere. It was a small victory, because Shepard only chuckled for a tiny moment. But still.

"Your Name?"

"Vulture."

"That sounds more like a code name."

"Because it is." i answered with a tone that ended further questions from this side. There wasn't any time to getting to know each other.

"I am going to be honest here." Shepard started. "I don't know you. I only saw a little glimpse of your fight skills so i don't know how good you are." he stated. It didn't sounded reassuring but i knew that he wasn't finished.

"But I'm a little short of people right now." he said pointing at Williams who was putting on her different pieces of armor. "I could use some help."

_"And Bingo."_ i thought. Perfect opportunity to prove myself.

"Anything you need, Commander." i answered trying to hide my joy.

"Good." he answered and then pointed at the bow. "If you need anything, feel free to check those crates, there is enough military equipment for a small army. We'll be at Mars orbit in 40 minutes." He added, and then went to change. I knew that nobody from the Alliance didn't considered bows as their weapon of choice, so i didn't count on any supplies from there.

"_Enough time to prepare." _i thought, and as always before going out into action i checked my equipment. I wasn't worried for the bow, it was made from a rare, tough to brake material, so beside shooting arrows it was very useful in hand to hand combat. I counted the arrows in the quiver - with satisfaction i noticed that there was enough of them for a fight that was ahead of me. At the end i took the backpack that one of my men handed my before i departed from earth. I opened it and put all of the items that were inside on the ground and started assessing, how much of it would be useful.

First, there was a crossbow. A smaller model but in combat it wasn't very efficient, because even in twenty second century they still haven't found a way for a quick reload in that thing. But it was very effective in sneak attacks to incapacitate the enemy. I attached it to my belt, luckily it wasn't very heave so i could move around without any problems.

Next to the crossbow i placed a small pouch, which contained all the necessary bolts for the weapon: mostly filled with sleeping gas, but there were also other fancy ones that no doubt will have their use. The bolts went in the belt compartments, all sorted so i knew which bolt was in which place.

Then there was food. That went straight back to the backpack, there was no use for that right now. But it was a pastrami sandwich, and i knew that could not resist it, when I'll be back.

And then, there was my personal favorite, very handy in action. The Visor. It looked like a eye cover and it was made from a special elastic material that was filled with about thirty thousand small nanobots, that besides matching to the user face structure, they were connected in probably one of the most effective cyber systems in this century. It had the typical alliance HUD options but also much more. With these on i could virtually tag an enemy and the system could give me his position even if he was out of my sight, with a flash of my hand i could switch vision from normal to thermal, to trace heat signatures, or ultraviolet to look for invisible clues. The system was also capable to locate enemy's weak spots or give information on how to use the environment to my advantage.

I took The Visor and pressed it against my face. I immediately felt the nanobots movements placing themselves around my eyes and nose. At first didn't saw a thing but after a barely hearable sound all of the nanobots were on and began to enable the system functions, beginning with visibility. I saw Shepard talking with Ashley, it looked like Williams was trying to explain something to the Commander, but judging by his body language, he wasn't interested in conversation with her. Then the HUD started running facial recognition, giving me the general information. There was the less interesting one like their height, weight and the information that our systems had about them. For me it was a way to make sure that the system was working, after that i disabled all the unnecessary thigns from my view.

"I am ready, Commander." i said approaching him. He looked at me, and of course saw the changes in my appearance.

"Nice look." he said pointing at my face.

"Helps in the fight, and makes even harder to identify me. So, what's the plan?" i asked.

Shepard looked up and extending his hand with the Omni-tool he said to someone, who was in the higher levels. "EDI, bring up the schematics."

The Omni-tool flashed and showed the holographic version of the base schematics. The archives were big, and i really was not exaggerating. At least seventeen floors, each one big enough that we would have to search it for days. The mission looked a lot like searching an needle in a haystack, but i sensed that Commander had a plan.

"We land in a shuttle port here." he said pointing at one of the holographic rooms in the middle of the base, that by his touch changed to red. "Our objective is to find out why the archives went dark, so we must reach the security room, that is here." he showed one of the rooms that were located directly one floor above the port. "From that we'll have to access the system and locate the Prothean archives ourselves and hope that the weapon blueprints are still here."

"And dr. T'Soni?" i asked. Shepard looked at me, and i could see concern in his eyes.

"Let's hope that she's still alive."


	3. Chapter 2: Mars (2)

**I planned on posting this on Tuesday. Oops...**

**Chapter a little longer than the previous one.**

**Enjoy! :-)**

"Vega, i want you to circle around the base, i need eyes on everything that is going outside." said Shepard when we were approaching the shuttle port. "Everything unusual that you'll see, i want an update about that, even if this the smallest anomaly."

"Yes, sir." said Vega. He knew that he wasn't in good shape to fight, so he volunteered to pilot the shuttle.

"EDI, what's the status on the base?"

_"My preliminary scans cannot explain why the base went silent. I am not detecting any S.O.S signals so i cannot tell, what happened." _

"Do you know if it's the reapers work?" i asked, still unsure who this "EDI" was.

_"My scans are not detecting any reaper activity at this moment. I am accessing the base systems right now. Standby..."_ she said. I had my suspicions about the fact that her being human but i kept it to myself.

_"Shepard, the live support systems have been disabled."_ she stated after a moment. That meant to oxygen to breathe inside, so that meant... a lot of dead bodies. And dead body cannot communicate with the outside world. But none of those people would disable it voluntarily. So someone was being either blackmailed, or they had a spy inside.

"Then it's good that we brought the right equipment." said Shepard looking at his helmet. I predicted that myself and borrowed one of the air supply bottle to breathe for at least 2 hours, with a breathing masks.

_"I am trying to access the camera feed systems, but I've detected a virus in their systems, that's cutting the feed from all the cameras in the base. In order to restore it, i need to disable the virus separately in every one of them, and that will take time._

"Start with every port points of access in the base, from shuttle ports to transport tunnels. There is no way that the Scientists disabled the live support system voluntarily. Someone was helping them with that, and there is a possibility that there is more than one person. And they have to watch their escape routes.

_"Doing this right now. Standby..."_ answered the feminine voice. We didn't waited long.

_"I've got something. Sending an image to your Omni-Tool, Shepard."_ The image came almost straight after the last call ended. It was from a feed from one of the other docking areas, and it was filled with shuttles and drop ships and soldiers that were boarding them. It looked like they were evacuating. Strangely their colors were not typical blues and whites, instead they were all white with occasional black stripes, and a very familiar logo.

"What the hell...?" asked Shepard surprised.

"Cerberus." stated Williams with an icy tone.

"What are they doing here?" i asked.

"I don't have a damn clue." said Shepard, checking for a twentieth time his Avenger.

"What, your buddies didn't told you that they come to visit, and kill innocent people?" asked Williams, sarcastically.

"Well, the Alliance kept me closed in the darkest hole in the whole damn galaxy so i didn't had an opportunity to chitchat with them. " answered Shepard in the same tone getting back at her.

Williams clearly wanted to continue their little friendly chat, but she was interrupted by Vega.

"Ten seconds to landing." he said from the pilot seat. On that mark i took my bow and put the mask around my mouth. After making sure that the air pump is functioning i acknowledged my readiness. A moment later the shuttle stopped and we all got off in complete silence.

The shuttle port was empty. There weren't any means of transportation there, but also there wasn't any signs of life.

"Looks clear." i stated.

"Come on, let's find that security room." said Commander taking point. Williams immediately followed him trying to watch his back and i was watching both of their backs, trying to stay in formation..

We passed the door and walked into a very long corridor. According to the plans this was the floors where all the base supplies from food to medical equipment so i was not concerned for any hostiles and i was right. All of the rooms were sealed off, besides none of us heard a thing so we made our way to the elevator without any fighting, but i knew that it was about to change.

It happened sooner than we thought.

After getting of the cargo elevator we stepped in the little room that was a foyer to another one, much bigger that was marked on the plans as a sorting room. Here all the supplies crates, and the stuff inside was categorized and transported to floors that were needing it. The room was open, and we clearly heard footsteps inside.

"Hostiles." muttered Shepard leaning by the wall trying to take a peek of what's going on. "There are enough rubble for good cover, we won't be seen." he added making his way inside. The room was a mess, but it looked like a defense outpost from the attackers, everything inside there was used as a barricade that was placed along the wall with the doors, and also it was going left. The barricade was holding even with the fight that was there, judging by the bullet holes.

We stood by it, hoping to get a glimpse though the cracks or hear some random conversation but it was useless. I had an idea what to do next. From my belt i took a little, red, circular transmitter. We called it "The Blinky-Blink." The name came from the fact, that when it was on, it was blinking, but also emitting waves, that connected with The Visor gave me the visual representation of everything in its range. I turned it on, to test if it was working.

"What is it?" asked Shepard. I silenced him with my finger on my lips, and went right to the end of the barricade. I had to kneel, because it was only one crate, but with one quick move of my hand "The Blinky-Blink" was attached to the other side. It took it about two seconds to communicate with The Visor. For a moment i didn't saw nothing, then the darkness changed to grey color, and one after another, white spots started appearing taking the shape of humans and random things.

The room was a medium sized one which was good cause we had the element of surprise here. Some spots were to close together so i had to move a little to get a better view. After a moment i counted nineteen human shapes inside. Eight of them were on their knees and had their hands behind their heads, and the rest of them were standing in random places not doing anything.

I came back to Shepard and told him all of my observations. He did not asked questions about how i knew that, i could see that he started analyzing.

"It's a hostage situation." he stated after a minute. It certainly looked like that so we had to be careful of our next move.

"I need to know their exact position. Can you do that?" he asked. Instead of answering I switched back again to "The Blinky-Blink" vision and dragged the other soldiers with me.

"Three of them are watching the prisoners." I started. "One by the door, two by on the right, and…" I paced a little to have a better view, and lowering voice to a barely hearable whisper. "… and rest of them on the other side of those crates."

"So, what's the plan, Skipper?" asked Williams.

"You've got flash bangs?"

"Hell yeah."

"Good, be prepared to use them." said Shepard and then turned to me and handed me two of his own. EMP's.

"She stun's them, you are frying their shields." He said pointing to the end of the wall, where I've previously been.

"And you?"

"I'm going to take care of the party right on the other side." answered Commander, preparing to push those crates at the Cerberus operatives.

I made my way to the end of the cover, leaned against it and took a peek. The two hostiles that were by the wall near me, were busy talking so there is no way they saw me.

"I'm in position."

"_Good. Ashley?"_ said Shepard over the comm.

"_In position, and ready to kick their ass." _

"_Ok, on three. One…" _

One of the soldiers started laughing, probably because of the other one's joke. _"Last laugh, asshole."_ I thought removing one of the security pins around the grenades.

"_Two…"_

And just before Shepard gave the final call, the door across the room opened with a quiet hiss.

"_Wait!"_ whispered Williams. _"Three more people in the party."_

"_Do you have a visual?"_ asked Shepard.

"_Yes, two more tangos, dragging between them a marine."_ she answered.

"_And?" _

"_They put him on the ground. And… oh God, he's got a gun against his head!"_ she whispered terrified.

And before Shepard reacted one of the Cerberus soldiers started talking.

"Where is she?" he asked, while I switched again the vision. I saw the marine kneeling on the ground and one of the Cerberus soldiers was walking around him with a gun putted to the soldier's head. The marine didn't answer, and that angered must've the interrogator, because he hit him with the fist in the head.

"I am going to ask again. Where is doctor Liara T'Soni?"

I could hear Shepard's sigh of relief. His question gave us the information, that the person who knew where the data was being stored was alive and not in enemy's hands.

The marine was a tough one. At least he acted like one because he answered:

"Go to hell." which was the most stupid thing that a person could say in this situation. I knew that the soldier would not last long. And i was right.

"You first." came the reply from the Cerberus interrogator.

And then he fired his weapon. The loud bang sounded across the room and I saw the marine's body falling on the floor. As a soldier he died a good death: he endured a round of torture and even after that he did not surrender to the enemy. Then I realized that the interrogation was quick, it lasted less than one minute. Looking again at the marines I realized why. They were starting to get scared, I saw, that their hands were shaking and they were turning away their gaze from the body of their colleague. Some of them seeing the execution started to analyze, if it's worth dying for a random doctor that they didn't knew, and if we would not stop the Cerberus soldiers, some of them will crack.

Shepard also realized that because a moment after the shot he yelled.

"_Now!" _

I took of the other safety pin and for a brief moment I exited the cover, revealing myself and threw the grenades at the crowd. I saw Williams doing the same. Both of us immediately fell back, and I covered my eyes.

After a brief moments two loud bangs of the flash grenades stunned the unsuspecting enemy. After the flash bangs went off I heard a big rumble – it was Shepard, who pushed the crates right at the soldiers and I hoped that some of the enemy's forces would get trapped under there. And at the end the electromagnetic pulses went off disabling everybody's shields in the room of course except ours since we were behind cover.

When the pulse wore off, it was time for action. Hearing shots being fired, I took one of the normal arrows and still behind cover I shot it right at the guy who was laughing, but I deliberately have chosen the down sections of his body. I thought that Shepard would like for questioning, so I wanted him crippled not dead. The arrow hit his knee. He yelled in pain, and fell on the ground. I passed him, and running to the middle of the room I shot another arrow, this time it got stuck right in the other guy's head.

And it was all of the action from my side. I turned around, looking for another enemy but I saw all of them dead. Most of them died of course because of the bullet holes, one guy looked like a Swiss cheese, but couple of them were unconscious thanks to Shepard. I saw four of the enemy's soldier trapped under a heavy crates, all of them were probably unconscious, maybe one had some serious head trauma.

As soon as the fight ended, loud hiss sounded across the room. The live support system was back, producing oxygen. I took my mask after a moment and took a couple of deep breaths.

Without a word, Shepard and Williams passed me, and approached the marines releasing them from the cuffs. I went in another direction and dragged the crippled soldier in the middle of the room, took off his helmet to see his face, and waited watching Shepard's exchange with the marines.

"Soldier, are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes, sir." he didn't bother saluting, trying to not fall on the ground again.

"What's the status on the archives?" asked Williams.

"Blown up." he stated simply, causing terrified looks on both Williams, and Shepard faces. He realized that, because he immediately added.

"But dr. T'Soni managed to copy some data at the OSD before it happened."

"Do you know where she is?" asked Williams

"No idea, madam. She was running away from Cerberus forces, we tried to evacuate her, but got ambushed by those assholes." he answered pointing at the dead bodies. The mission parameters had changed. It wasn't no longer a data retrieval mission. Instead it was a rescue operation.

"How many dead?" asked Williams.

"About hundred and fifty. All of the laboratory workers." said Marine with a tone full of pain.

"Where are the soldiers?" i asked, a little bit surprised.

"Gone. They've got orders, to come back to Arcturus Station for reassignment, and we were supposed to wait for backup to come from the Citadel. Instead we got them." said the marine lowering his head. We looked at each other in horror. They've probably left in shuttles and met in Mars orbit with some transport ships. And with the reaper invasion that came from the Charon relay... Their chances of survival were low. Very low.

"Thank you for the information." said Shepard looking at all the marines, and then added pointing at two of them. "You two, go and find a shuttle, then all of you get out, and find our pilot that is circling around here. After we collect the data, we'll get you on the Citadel, you'll be more useful there." The two marines listened, and went through the door that we came here. Shepard then saw me with the prisoner, made his way towards us and crouched.

"What is Cerberus doing here?" he asked calmly.

The soldier was moaning in pain quietly but he did not said a thing, acting like Shepard wasn't there.

"I'm going to ask again, what is Cerberus doing here?" he asked, this time a little more forcefully. This time soldier decided to talk, but not giving us answers.

"I'm not telling you a thing... traitor." he spit the last part with venomous tone, sending Shepard's murderous gaze. Shepard wasn't discouraged by that, he calmly stood up, took his predator and shot one bullet in the guy's other knee.

The soldier let out a loud cry of pain almost falling on the ground, but I grabbed him by his arm and forcefully brought him down on his knees again. Then he started screaming.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! Fucking asshole..." and then he didn't stopped his litany of swears for a good minute. That slightly annoyed Shepard, because using his fist he hit him in the face so hard, that the man almost did a full circle and fell to the ground. The hit was a strong one, i saw two of the prisoner tooth, falling on the ground.

Shepard gestured to me to lift him up, which i did again placing him on the knees.

"Now, since your knees are matching, I am going to ask for the third damn time, WHAT THE FUCK IS CERBERUS DOING HERE!" this time Commander almost yelled the last sentence into his ear.

But the soldier still wasn't in the mood to talk. Instead of answering he spit in Shepard's face. I saw that the commander was very surprised by that, and me? I was starting to get annoyed. It was time to take initiative. I took one of my arrows in my hand, and forcefully pushed it on the left side of his neck, right in the spot that wasn't covered by the armor. The arrow went half into his body, just like i planned. As he yelled painfully, I crouched beside him holding an end of the arrow to maneuver it, and started talking loud enough that everyone heard me.

"Buddy…" I started "you have a very large and very sharp head of an arrow stuck in your body. It is placed directly between your spinal cord..." as i said that i moved the head to the right. "your heart..." moved the arrow to the left. "and your left lung." i said moving it to the back. I immediately saw, that the soldier dropped the tough attitude and was getting scared. "One more push in the wrong side and you either won't be able to walk to the rest of your damn life, or die the most excruciating death ever." I said with an icy tone, seeing by the corner of my eye Shepard's calm attitude and hearing gasps from the Alliance's marines.

Just like i thought, the soldier momentarily cracked.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! Please take it away!" he pleaded with a shaky voice.

"I will, as soon as you will answer all of the questions, that the good Commander will ask you. Will you?" I asked pointing at Shepard who was watching this calmly.

"Yes, yes I will!" he said, shaking his head positively.

"Good." I said sarcastically and patted him on the other arm, waiting for Shepard, who asked for the fourth time.

"What are you doing here, in an Alliance facility?"

"We've got a tip from our agent, that one of the doctors found a very promising data in the archives."

"What's use do Cerberus have for this data?"

"Hell if I know, I am just a soldier. I have orders, and I execute them without asking questions."

"How many are you here?"

"About seventy."

And immediately something was wrong. Seventy soldiers, attacked the base where worked about thousand people mostly military protection?

"So, you're telling me that seventy people went on a suicidal mission, to attack the base where worked ten times more people?" i asked

"We knew, that most of the people won't be here." he muttered.

"How?" asked Shepard.

But the soldier wasn't answering the question.

"How?" i growled moving the arrow around, causing him again to crack.

"We were the ones, who gave out the order!" he yelled.

"How?" I repeated the question in the same tone. "To do that, you need security codes, field identities and have access to the correct channels..." i started, but then stopped in midsentence realizing the answer.

"You have people there." i said.

The soldier didn't said anything, instead he just nodded.

"How many?" asked Shepard calmly.

"I don't know exactly, i know only about a couple of bribes..."

After hearing that Williams was furious. Without thinking he hit the prisoner with her Avenger.

"LIAR!" she yelled, and was about to take another swing at him but Shepard stopped her.

"Stand down, Williams!" he ordered.

"You can't expect to believe a word of a lowlife scum, Shepard." she said with a shaky tone, involuntarily revealing to the prisoner her belief in the Alliance.

The soldier used that, and after hearing that, started to laugh cruelly like he just heard another joke.

"Lady, you have no idea how eager they was to take the bribes." he said looking directly at Ashley with a cruel smile. "Your precious Alliance cares more about their pockets, that the reputation that they supposedly have."

"If you won't stop spitting lies, so help me God, i am going to..." started Williams, but was again interrupted by Shepard.

"Ashley, calm down!" he yelled, placing his hand at her arm in a calming gesture. Williams ignored him, and to avoid further confrontation in front of strangers, she stormed out of the room with Shepard who momentarily followed her.

After their departure i was all alone with the prisoner and the marines who were still waiting for their colleagues. There was one more thing that needed to be explained.

"The agent." i stated simply.

"I don't know." he answered, feeling what my question was.

"You sure?" i asked again, moving the arrow near his heart.

"I DON'T KNOW!" he yelled. "Please, i just got orders, based on the Intel from the agents. We were not told who he was, and how to contact him, i swear!" he added with his eyes closed, expecting the worse.

I believed him. He was just a regular soldier, there was no way that he knew stuff that were clearly above his security clearance. I knew that the spy was here, and it was my job to locate him. I took the arrow from the guy's body and threw it away. His body fell to the floor but i heard him taking gasps of air. I ignored him and approached the marines, who were greeting their colleagues that came back with a shuttle.

"Soldier?" i asked one of them. The one near me turned, and seeing he saluted. It was weird but i didn't had time to straighten things up.

"Tell me, have you seen something weird for the last couple months around here?"

"Weird, sir?" he asked, slightly confused.

"Anything out of the ordinary. Someone talking with someone unexpected or acting strange overall, someone vanishing mysteriously for a couple of hours, like that."

"Actually there is, sir." said one of the other marines.

Hello, mystery!

"Please do tell." i asked.

"One of our latest visitor that was granted access to the higher security levels." he started.

"What about her?"

"She was acting strange. Always walking by herself, never eating in the cafeteria. She was either in the archives or closed in her room."

"You know her name?"

"Yes, sir." he answered, turning around and typing something at the console nearby. After a minute he stepped aside that i could see the images on the screen that showed random clips from the security footage. The clips were showing a woman, brunette, approximately 30 years old. Her body looked perfect for a woman her age, she was certainly taking care of herself. In every cuts she wore the same one-piece costume painted in white and black.

"From how long ago is this?" i asked.

"Last two weeks, since her arrival."

"And dr. T'Soni, how long ago she arrived?"

"At least three days earlier than her."

_"So the good doctor must have been followed."_ i thought. Cerberus kept tabs on one of the biggest Prothean experts with the threat of the reaper invasion, hoping that she'll stumble on something useful. And since she made her way here, they send an undercover agent, that will watch her every move. But that all made sense only if she was the threat.

"Her name?" i asked after a brief moment.

"One moment." said soldier, and again started typing on the holographic keyboard. After a minute he found the answer that flashed on the screen. Dr. Eva Core.

"And all checked out? Her resume and all the documents?"

"According to the guards here that were admitting her, all was all right. The documents were clean, along with the permission to use the archives."

The documents were easy to forge, and in light of all the revelations that the crippled one said, the fact of her having the permission was not surprising. But it was the best and unfortunately the only lead that we've had.

"Thank you, soldier. You may actually helped us catch a traitor here. You may go now." i said. In response all of them saluted and left the room.

After they left, I accessed one of the console myself and after typing in a couple of commands i destroyed all the databases that were stored at the local servers, making sure that the feed from the cameras were still on. The base was wrote off anyway, and with everyone death and the fact that the reapers will take over the sol system i didn't want the data being found out be the wrong people.

I turned around i went to join Shepard and Williams in the other room. On my way out I heard the Cerberus soldier asking:

"What about me?"

I turned and with a cold gaze answered:

"I did say that I won't kill you. I didn't say anything about rescuing." i said simply. I really wanted to kill that guy, threw him outside and let him suffocate and for sure we wouldn't take him with us, in his state he would be only a unnecessary baggage. But i sighed. I took one of the Predators that was lying on the ground and started shooting at the ceiling. After leaving only one bullet i threw the gun at him. He catched it and started looking at it sadly.

"Sometimes the easy way, is the good way." i said simply starting to feel really sorry for him. The guy looked young, he could not be older than twenty two years old. He had a bright future ahead of him, he would join the Alliance during this war, he would win a couple of battles, get promoted, find a girl who would love him for the rest of his live. Instead he got fooled by Cerberus, that probably promised him a lot of money if he'd do everything what they say. Seeing how he was scared during our little talk, this probably was his first time and as a result he would be alone here. Or the reapers would find him.

I turned, making my way to the other room. I didn't make two steps when i heard a gunshot and after that a body falling on the floor. I turned again and saw the guy laying on his right side with his eyes open and a big, red, blood dripping wound on his left temple. I approached him quietly, and closed his eyes.

"Find peace in the other world." i whispered, and exited the room.

Outside there was another corridor. It was bigger connected directly to a terrace, with a view on the planet. It looked like it served as a point where the workers could relax and talk to each other, there was a lot of chairs and tables around and comfortable sofas. From there we could easily access the security room, i saw the open doors at the other side.

On the terrace, leaning against a railing I saw Williams. She was standing still, and near her was Shepard. They were arguing about something. This looked personal and it wasn't any of my business, but they did not care for that.

"How can I know…" said Williams with a shaky tone.

"You don't trust me?" asked Shepard, little irritated.

"How can I know that this really you inside?"

"Because I am!" yelled Shepard. "You think that I didn't asked that question myself? You really think that I went along with their plan? Yes, I agreed to work with them, took their ship, took their people and resources and nothing more! But there wasn't a day where I was not imagining a killswitch hidden somewhere in my body that will erase my memory if would do to anger the Illusive Man. There wasn't a day when I kept repeating all of the major events of my live and checking them on the extranet just to keep sure if they did not erased or changed something.

During this whole rant, Williams just stood there with her mouth open in half and I was pretty sure that I saw tears in her eyes. I got to admit, from the outsider perspective this conversation looked much like in those old soap operas from two decades ago. But now I knew just for sure that there was something more between them than just friends. Not if that bothered me that much but it is always good to know everything.

"Besides I know for sure that I am me, Ash." said Shepard calmly at the end.

"How?"

"The Cerberus operative, that was with me all the time, told me that."

"And you believe him?"

"Her." he corrected. "And yes, I do. The question is, do you believe me?"

Williams looked for the right words for an answer, when she was interrupted by EDI.

"Commander, you should be able to access the camera feed, from the security room."

Shepard passed her and muttered into her ear something like "We'll talk later." And turned made his way to the security room. He saw me, but we both didn't talked about what I witnessed.

EDI was right, in the security room, we saw the feed from all of the cameras from the base.

"Nice work." complemented Shepard. "What are we looking at?"

"Every single camera from first to third floor." said the feminine voice.

"Ok, people. Look carefully and she might need help."

So we did. It took about good twenty minutes to analyze the footage from the first twelve floors which gave us hope, because the higher up, the closer the doctor was. Then at the unlucky thirteen…

"Here!" yelled Williams pointing at the screen. We all gathered around her and saw the proof of dr. T'Soni alive. She was running through the corridors of laboratories, I saw many artifacts laying on the tables along with archeological equipment. She was being chased by none other than the doctor Eva Core herself.

Vega must have seen them as well through the windows because he said over the comm.

"Shepard, I've got visual on our Asari and it looks like she's being chased by a human female. How should I proceed?"

"Watch them carefully, Vega. Do not lose them, and report to us where are they moving."

"Roger that." answered Vega and went silent.

"Where are they?" asked Shepard.

"Three floors above you and your team, Shepard."

"How can we get there?"

"I would recommend using the same cargo elevator that you've used before."

"Is there a way to get there besides elevator?" i asked.

"One moment." said EDI. After a minute the schematics came up on one of the consoles, and I already saw my way up.

"There." I said pointing at the long red line that was spreading through the whole base. I had my suspicions about what it was but I asked.

"What is this?"

"Heating vent." i got an answer. I heard Shepard chuckle behind me but I ignored him, hearing EDI again. "Currently disabled due to renovations."

"Which means, that there is no risk of me being cooked." I said.

"Yes."

"If we split up, there is a better chance of finding her." I said turning to Shepard who nodded in agreement.

"Ash, you come with me. We take the elevator and start searching room by room from our point, Vulture, you'll do the same from the other side." he said, and then he pressed the finger near his ear. "EDI, when we're there, I want you to cut off the whole floor from the base. No access to the elevators, hatches or any means to getting away." I was a risky choice from him, we could be too late to rescue the doctor, since she'll be trapped on one floor, but it could make the job for us easier.

"Yes, Shepard." he got an answer.

"Good. Let's find Liara. And the data."


	4. Chapter 2: Mars (3)

**Damn, i keep promising myself - this is going on Friday, this is going on Friday... Oops. **

**As you may seen, I've decided on Ashley/Shepard romance. But if you are looking for a sweet, mushy story of how happy they are in their little relationship and how they must to overcome the obstacles that the bad life is throwing at them - turn back. I am only going to drop little hints or one, two paragraphs about how they are behaving in certain situations and what the OC is thinking about it. This is mostly the Adventure type of story after all...**

**Enjoy :-) **

"I'm exiting the hatch now." I muttered over the comm.

"_Roger that. Me and Williams countered some remains of their forces, now we are splitting up. "_ said Shepard.

"Got it." I said, and then ended the call. I carefully closed the hatch doors and then got my bow and prepared the arrow to shoot and started moving forward.

The floor looked like a mess which wasn't a surprised considering the dead bodies laying around. The staff here was surprised by the sudden system shutdown, some of them here didn't even got up from their chairs and died with their heads on the desks. I tried to look for possible clues, that could give me information if the chase was here, but there was no way to tell that with all the mess. I was checking the transport tunnels, when Shepard activated the call.

"_Sorting rooms clear."_ he whispered over the comm.

"_Laboratories from one to twelve also clear."_ Informed Williams.

"Transport tunnels…" I was just about to say that they were clear, but I saw a glimpse of something blue at the other end of the tunnel that i was actually checking, and a moment later I caught a glimpse of a dark hair that belonged no doubt to a woman.

"I've got them." I stated and started running. "North entrance to transport tunnel number six, running east."

_"I see them."_ stated Vega.

"_On my way."_ said Shepard.

"_I think I can cut them off."_ Said Williams, and after a moment she said _"I've got a visual, Liara is running in my direction."_

_"Confirmed. LT, they just turned to the corridor, and the only way to go further is through you."_

_"Williams, do not engage! Wait for us!"_ said loudly Shepard with a hint of panic.

_"Too late, Skipper. They are right beside me."_ responded Williams and after a minute she yelled _"Liara, Duck!"_ and started shooting. After a couple of shots, her comm went silent. We didn't heard any gunshots, we didn't hear anyone talking. We heard nothing.

_"Ashley!"_ yelled Shepard but still there was no answer.

_"Something happened." _hestated, still running.

"I am literally one minute from her position" i managed to say, during my run.

_"Then you better move quickly, things are not looking good here!"_ shouted Vega.

I've picked up the pace finally reaching the end of that damn tunnel and turned right, and squeezed myself through a gap that was caused by a malfunction in the door opening systems. After that i started hearing barely recognizable fight sounds, but i didn't heard any gunshots. It looked like Williams was dealing with the Cerberus spy with her bare hands.

And it looked like she was losing.

About two hundred meters, before turning left few things has happened in a brief moment. First i heard a scream, no doubt coming from the direction that Williams was fighting. I picked up my pace even more when I heard another voice, this one was begging.

_"Don't do it! Please! I will give you the data, just put her down!"_ After that, there was a loud rumble, like something heavy fell on the floor.

"Orders, sir?" sounded a new feminine, unnaturally calm voice.

For a split second i was running in a complete silence, when Vega screamed:

_"Holy shit, she is going to throw her!"_

"I'm here!" i yelled and jumped out of the corned. Counting for luck i fired the arrow without aiming. The arrow almost hit the target, it flew over the Cerberus spy's head. I reach to the quiver to take another one, but i knew that i could not prevent the thing that was about to happen.

The image was... well, all kind of bad. It was, scary, creepy, terrifying. The Cerberus spy, just stood there in the middle of the corridor with her hands up over her head, and she was holding Williams unconscious body like some kind of doll. Seeing me, she smiled. It wasn't a honest happy smile. It was a smile that could give people nightmare's for days, it was a smile that a psycho killer would give his victim right before pressing the blade through the heart.

And then, using full force, she tossed the body on the floor.

The force from the impact was big, almost unnatural. The concrete was getting cracked and even crushing a little. I was stunned. I saw my fair share of bad things during my life but that as definitely the worst. I started counting in my imagination all the broken bones in her body, assessing the internal damage caused by the impact, and hoped to God that there was no damage to the her spine. She needed medical attention, and she needed it fast. But i needed to eliminate the spy first.

Hearing Vega's loud _"Holy fuck!"_ over the comm, and constant questions coming from Shepard, i shoot the arrow, but to my surprise she caught it right before it hit her abdomen. She looked at it with disdain and snapped it in half like it was a damn toothpick. Then she aimed her gun at me and pulled the trigger so quickly that i didn't had time to react.

But lucky to me the gun was empty.

Realizing that, she threw the gun at me. I caught it, and was about to throw it back, but i saw her charging like raging bull, so i had took the step to the left. She passed me, and then turned around taking a swing with her left fist. I managed to deflect it with one of the bow limps. She tried to kick me in the left knee, hoping to knock me out of balance, but i managed jump to the right and catch her foot and using the element of surprise, i threw her against the wall and quickly aimed another arrow directly at her heart.

This time the arrow reached its target, but something was wrong. The moment when the arrow made contact was different, more metallic. There wasn't any blood dripping out of the wound. And also the spy completely ignored the fact of the arrow stuck in her most important part of her body and stood up like she just had woke up from a nap. Then, seeing my surprise she pulled the arrow out of her body and tossed aside showing her wound. No blood, no inside flesh. Instead of that a couple of wires, insides colored in dark blue and a little torn fake skin.

"It's a robot." i said very surprised.

I didn't knew what Shepard said to me, because she used my little moment of astonishment, and jumped on me, knocking me on my back. I managed to flip her over my head with my legs and rolled away from her to gain some ground. I already had a plan. I was fighting a robot, and since it didn't exactly had a On and Off button, i needed to disable it and the only way was to do that, was to overload her central processing unit with an extra dose of electricity. To do that, i needed to distance myself from her.

I fired another arrow just to test again it reflex but i missed. The robot turned around and with a bright flash, fired a big flaming sphere at me. Incinerate. I managed to slide right under it, feeling for a moment the enormous amount of heat that the sphere was emitting and fired another arrow that it dodged it. Then, the robot fired another incinerate that was easy for me to dodge and used that split moment to came a little closer. It was time to change tactics, since shooting from a distance didn't worked it was time to close the gap between us.

I activated my shield and with the bow in one hand, and the electric arrow in another i charged right at it. It's programming didn't consider that and for a brief moment, so i had the chance. Using the lower bow limp i knocked it out on the ground and was about to stab it with an arrow, but the robot managed to grab my hand and threw me behind it. I landed near T'Soni and saw that she was unconscious. I rolled to the right barely dodging the Ice Blast. I realized that i couldn't afford to dance with her for ages. It was time for another ace from my sleeve.

I reached out to one of my belts compartments and took two small balls. Those were smoke pellets. Useful if you wanted to disappear and if you wanted to surprise someone. It was time to check if it worked for synthetics.

I rolled the balls on the floor and after a minute they began to emit white smoke with a quiet hiss. It took about five to eight seconds to cover the entire hallway. Then i enabled sonar vision in The Visor. I noticed that the synthetic had heels, so while walking it's emitting sounds that would be transformed into a picture in my Visor. And i was right, the robot was trying to carefully placing it's steps, but the vibrations were really visible. The robot had chosen the "run away" tactic, i saw blue dots, that were symbolizing every step, getting further from me. I smiled, then I've put the end of the arrow in the bowstring and flexed it. I was just about to shoot when i felt a brute force almost crushing my neck. Unable to breathe i realized my mistake, in the smog the robot send a decoy, to draw my attention while it probably jumped over the railing, and moving along it managed to surprise me.

I began to scuffle heavily hoping to throw it off my back. It didn't worked so i turned with it and ran backwards pinning it to the wall. The impact was big, i felt pan from the lower parts of my spine but the damn robot wasn't stopping. Now the roles were reversed. I was the raging bull, and the robot was a cowboy riding it. But i fought for my life in this rodeo. My fight must've lasted good minute because i started seeing stars and feeling pressure rising in my neck, that was trying to blow my head. Trying to ignore the rising panic i had one last move to make. I dropped the bow and took the electric arrow in another hand.

_"Here goes nothing."_ i thought closing my eyes and with one quick move I've pushed the arrow right below my right arm. I ignored the pain that erupted inside my body, caused by that and to make sure that the arrow went through me and inside the damn robot i pushed again. Apparently the robot didn't felt that, but he saw what i was doing.

"Already giving up?" the robot asked with the sweet tone.

"Not in a million years." i managed to blurt, seeing darkness before my eyes, but managed to take out the pilot from the belt compartment and pushed the button.

As soon as the arrow started producing electricity, the chocking immediately stopped and i started to desperately gasp for air and cough at the same time. I didn't felt anything, not even a tine spark affecting me. I had my shields enabled and i wasn't worried about getting electrocuted. I felt the robot movements and twitches behind me, it didn't make any sounds or any screams, It was only moving uncontrollably. All lasted a little less than twenty seconds.

_"System malfunction, shutting down..."_ it said at the end, and i felt it laying on by back, not moving. I sighed in relief but there was one more thing to do. I took the end of the arrow that was standing out from my body and snapped it. I threw away the part that i had in my hand and started wondering how the hell should i get the damn robot of my back without damaging myself even more, when i heard a voice.

"What... what happened here?"

T'Soni finally woke up. She looked around a little still a little dazed, and then her gaze rested on me. She saw the robot and then it looked like she resembled the events before the passing out.

"Ashley!" she yelled getting up. Ignoring me completely she ran to Williams body and put two fingers near her jugular to check the pulse.

"Is she alive?" i asked.

"Yes, but the pulse is weak, she needs to be evacuated." she answered, finally looking at me.

"Who are you?" she asked.

I was just about to respond, when i heard loud footsteps. I looked in that direction and saw Shepard that finally decided to join the party. He looked at T'Soni, then at me, joined with a robot in a funny way and at the end he finally spotted Williams laying on the floor.

"Ashley..." he said worriedly kneeling beside her. She still wasn't moving but i noticed her chest moving up and down, which was a clear sign that she was breathing. He put his hand on her cheek, and started gently stroking it with a concerned face. It lasted for a brief moment but then he stopped and he putted his hands, one behind her neck and one behind her legs and was about to lift her up.

"NO!" i yelled at him along with the doctor. He looked confused so T'Soni gave him a full story that i filled with a list of her potential injuries. He was a terrified look for a brief moment, but luckily he immediately calmed down.

"We need to get her to the Citadel." i said pointing to the robot that was still limply laying on my back. "Could someone help?" i pleaded. Shepard was first to get near me, and then he finally saw the arrow that was connecting me with the robot.

"Risky move." he stated his observation.

"It was either that, or the damn robot would choke me." i answered calmly. "Now, can you get it out of me? It is getting heavy."

He nodded in response and grabbed the shaft, and T'Soni grabbed the robot by the back. With one push backwards, the heavy weight was off me. I felt pain after they've removed the robot, but it didn't lasted long. After that i checked the entry wound. It was small and right below my arm, so i aimed perfectly. It wasn't dangerous, the bleeding would stop eventually itself.

"Thanks."

"No problem." said Shepard tossing robot on the ground. "Cerberus spy?" he asked.

I nodded and gave him a full story from the talk with the Cerberus operative to a brief description of my fight with it.

"We need to take it. Who knows that data it holds." said Shepard. I nodded and took the robot and threw it around my other arm.

_"Shepard do you copy?"_ sounded Vega's voice over the comm

"Yes, Vega."

_"Urgent message from the Normandy. Scans detected reaper activity about five hundred kilometers from the base."_ that meant, that they'd reach the base very soon.

"We need to get out of here." said Shepard and turned to the doctor "Liara, do you have the data?" he asked.

"Yes." she answered and then she reached to one of her pockets showing to us the OSD.

"Good, let's get out of here." said Shepard looking at Ashley. "We need to take her."

I had the idea of how to transport here without making other damage but T'Soni had her own idea. She stepped further and waved her arm over Williams body, that started glowing in blue light. With another wave the body lifted up, and was levitating above the ground.

"I can hold her for about thirty minutes, i can't guarantee what will happen after that." she stated.

"We can be in the Medical Bay in less than twenty." said Shepard, putting his finger near his ear. "Vega we are ready for pick-up."

_"On my way, Commander."_ answered soldier.

"Let's move." said Shepard leading our little pack, to the nearest shuttle port. After boarding the shuttle we finally left the base, and i think that all of us were wondering how much time will pass, until we'll be back.

**So, Ashley still is injured on Mars. I'm not planning on removing game events, all of them will be in this story, all i am going to do is to change them, some more, some less. **

**Next - Citadel. And another information about our mysterious Brotherhood :-). **


End file.
